This invention relates to mechanical transmissions for electrically driven vehicles, and more particularly to such transmissions which include a speed reducer and gear shifter.
The power plant for an electric drive for a land vehicle consists of an engine driven alternator or generator, electrical power conversion equipment, motors and associated solid state controllers, and a mechanical transmission between the motors and a traction device. The traction device requires a high torque with input speeds from zero up to a few hundred revolutions per minute in each direction. In order to use smaller and lighter electric motors, it is desirable to have high speed motors capable of producing adequate power to accelerate the vehicle forward and backward, to turn the vehicle, and to drive the vehicle up an incline. Therefore, a transmission which produces a speed reduction is required. In addition to a speed reduction, a speed shifter within the transmission is desirable to produce maximum torque at low vehicle speeds.